Christmas With the Hosts!
by EchoResonance
Summary: I had a nice, relaxing weekend all planned out. I forgot that I haven't had one of those since I joined the Host Club. What made me think they'd leave me in peace on Christmas of all days? Sequel's OUT: New Years As A Host!
1. Twelve Days of Christmas

"Hey Haruhi~" sang the twins.

"GAH!" I exclaimed, leaping nearly out of my skin.

Those two ginger siblings had a disturbing knack for appearing out of nowhere and scaring the living Hell out of me. The worst part was that they seemed to get a real kick out of it, so I couldn't get them to cut it out. They reminded me of a pair of twins that were in one of my favorite book series. Those two had been ginger troublemakers as well—their entire family was made up of gingers—and were also always causing mischief around their own fancy school. I didn't have anything against redheads in general—just the Hitachiin twins. Still, they were my best friends, along with the rest of the Host Club.

"Sorry," said Kaoru, not looking sorry at all.

"We didn't mean to scare you." Hikaru hardly sounded sincere.

I blinked and straightened up. The two of them were holding armfuls of what looked like ribbons and garland, along with various other decorations. They each had a bow stuck in their hair, too—matching, of course. They weren't wearing the normal black ties, either. Instead their ties were silver, striped with gold and red. Most of the guys had been wearing ties like that lately, though I wasn't sure why.

"What's all that for?" I wondered, peeking into one of the bags Kaoru was carrying.

"We've got to decorate the Music Room," said Hikaru, like I was simple in the head.

"Duh, Christmas is in only a week!" his brother added. "We're actually late getting set up."

"Oh yeah, I forgot…" I said thoughtfully. Between trying to pay off my debt to the Host Club and keeping up with my studies, I hadn't been keeping track of the holidays very well at all. They'd never been a big deal to me, in all honesty. But apparently, they were to some people. Damn rich kids.

"You forgot?!" exclaimed the twins in unison. "How could you forget about _Christmas_? It's, like, the best holiday there is!"

"I thought you guys preferred Halloween?" I reasoned, considering their aptitude for taking _Trick-or-treat? _to a whole new level.

"Yeah, Halloween's great and all, but you don't get a bunch of cool stuff on Halloween!"

"Yeah, and it's the only time my brother will talk to me, besides Thanksgiving," said Hunny, running up with Usa-chan clutched in his arms. It was hard to believe that the kid riding on stoic Mori's shoulders was my senpai by two years.

"Christmas is the time for giving presents and sitting around the table eating to your heart's content!" said Tamaki dramatically. He possessed the same teleporting ability that the twins did, though I'll be damned if I knew how they managed it.

"Businesses make quite a profit during the Christmas season," came a cool, apathetic voice from the doorway. I looked around; Kyoya stood there with his clipboard, looking as amused by the rest of us as ever. "The Host Club in particular does very well this time of year. All of the girls want a chance with someone under the mistletoe."

I shook my head.

"I don't know how _that_ got to be a tradition," I sighed. "Mistletoe is a really poisonous plant. Who on earth would find that even the least bit romantic, besides Nekazawa-senpai?"

"I heard that…" came a dreary voice from through the double doors that were only present in the room half of the time.

"No offense intended!" I called. Of course, there was no response—only a fool would expect one—but I figured it wouldn't do any harm to apologize anyway. "Sorry!"

"I tend to agree," nodded Kyoya. "However, for whatever reason, our patrons find it quite romantic, and who are we to object?"

"I just hope I don't get stuck under any," I muttered. "Because of Tamaki-senpai I already gave my first kiss to a girl. I don't swing that way, so I don't want to repeat the experience any time soon."

I should have been more careful with what I said. It was too freaking easy to set Tamaki off, especially for me.

"My little Haruhi, are you still upset with Daddy over that?!" he wailed, clutching me in a vice-like grip and nuzzling his nose in my hair.

"Hey! Get off!" I shouted, trying to wrest free of him, but he wouldn't allow it.

"Daddy's sorry Haruhi!"

"You're not my father," I grumbled. "Mori-senpai, help!"

Thank God for people like Mori. Immediately he was right beside us, tugging me effortlessly out of Tamaki's grasp. For a moment I dangled in the air like a rag doll, and I remembered the first time something like that had happened. At that point in time, Kyoya, Hunny, and the Hitachiin brothers had all figured out that I wasn't really a guy, but Tamaki still thought so. He'd been going on about how "cute" I was, and he wouldn't let me go. I asked Mori to help me, and just like now, he'd lifted me up into the air away from Tamaki. That was when he'd figured it out.

I burst out laughing. The rest of them looked at me questioningly, but Mori just set me back on my feet, giving a very slight smile of his own. For him, that was like one of Tamaki's belly laughs.

"I just remembered the first time that happened," I giggled. "Tamaki-senpai still thought I was a guy that time, and Mori-senpai only figured it out when he saved me from him."

"Hey, I remember that," giggled Hunny. "I figured it out after Kyo-chan, when I had you hold Usa-chan for a while. You were too cute to be a guy!"

"Yeah, we figured it out next," said the twins. "When we tried to make you change into the uniform and you kicked us out of the changing room. If _that_ wasn't perfectly obvious, then we'd be real idiots."

"Of course, I knew it from the start," shrugged Kyoya.

"Yeah, the rest of us figured it out pretty quick," nodded Hunny.

"But it took the Boss walking in on her while she was changing to figure it out," chuckled the redheads in their evil way.

"Shut up," Tamaki muttered. I blinked. Somehow he'd gotten over to the corner of the room in the space of a couple milliseconds, and was huddled with his knees pulled up to his chest.

"C'mon, Tamaki-senpai, that's in the past," I said quickly, hoping to pull him out of that state of depression. It only got creepier the more he did it. "No one thinks you're stupid or anything. _Don't,_" I added, giving my death glare to the twins who had opened their mouths to argue. Obediently they pressed their lips together and didn't say a word, looking alarmed.

I sighed and relaxed. When Tamaki got like that, it was extremely hard to get him to snap out of it. Better to just let him do it on his own time.

"Shoot, what were we even talking about?" I wondered. "Oh yeah, Christmas. Well, should we start decorating?"

"Yeah, the trees will be here in a couple of hours," said Kaoru. "So we can start on the pillars and the walls. Hunny-senpai, you can decorate the tables."

"Just don't overdo it, Mitsukuni," said Mori quietly.

"Right!" said Hunny, raising his hand in a salute. "I'll do my best! Then afterwards we can eat cake!"

"Haruhi, you can help me with the pillars," said Kyoya, taking me by surprise.

"Uhm, sure, okay," I said.

"Boss?" Kaoru prompted.

The pathetic-looking "Prince-character" looked up from his corner, his eyes immediately locking in on me and Kyoya.

"Uh…" said Hikaru hesitantly.

"Never mind." In unison.

"Mori, you can help Hunny pick out the right tea sets for Christmas, can't you?" suggested Kyoya.

Mori nodded.

"Yeah."

"Well everybody," said Kyoya, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. The twins finished his thought like they so often did with each other.

"Let's get to work!"


	2. Deck The Halls

I had to admit, whatever their shortcomings, the Host Club guys worked together almost flawlessly when it came to decorating Music Room Three. This time, they had joined forces to create a perfect winter wonderland. Granted, it wasn't exactly original, but it was tastefully done so that it was eye-catching but not too much. The guys were good at that. They'd chosen to go with a color scheme of red and gold, with accents of silver thrown in here and there as they thought necessary.

The pillars were now wrapped in scarlet and gold garland that had just a bit of sparkle and shine, catching the fluorescent lighting without seeming obnoxious. And that was coming from me, so you know it was pretty subtle for the rest of the guys. To get to the tops of the pillars, I at first had to climb onto Kyoya's shoulders like Hunny always did to Mori, but when that didn't reach all the way to the top, I tried to stand on them. I wasn't exactly graceful enough to pull that off, though, so we found a ladder. I thought Tamaki might have a heart attack or else start breathing fire when I climbed on Kyoya's shoulders. The cool guys just pushed up his glasses and ignored his friend's insults of _Traitor!_ Whatever that meant.

Once we had the ladder, we took huge lengths of green garland that, apart from being way too long, looked exactly like pine boughs and stapled them in the corner between the ceiling and the wall. We also put it at the top of the pillars. Hunny wanted to hang ornaments on the green garland, but Mori talked him out of it. It seemed they already had an idea of what they wanted to add to the garland, which did in truth look a little plain.

Hunny and Mori had done a great job of setting all of the tables. They had taken red tablecloths and gold ones, mixing them up throughout the room so that there were never two of the same colors beside each other. Hunny had found Poinsettias from somewhere and arranged them artfully in crystal vases as centerpieces for the tables. Mori had actually picked out the tea sets, though he didn't actually take any of the credit. They were really pretty: white china inlaid with delicate gold filigree in amazing designs. The only problem with the tea sets was that I'd be too afraid to touch it or get it dirty.

Tamaki had finally come out of his shell to help the twins cover the place with fake snow that had silver sparkles in it for an extra bit of flare. The entire floor was layered with the stuff, thick enough that you couldn't make out the color of the carpet. It lay like a thin blanket over the chairs and benches, and they'd even managed to get it in the fake pine boughs on the ceiling. It looked really cool, but something was still missing. Not the trees, which would be delivered.

"You know, Haruhi," said Kyoya speculatively. "It helps to have a girl's point of view. Since you started helping with the decorating, we've been getting more customers than ever before."

"Yeah, well, I _am_ a _girl_," I laughed softly. "I know what girls like. To some extent, anyway. Some of it I don't understand, but the rest is a piece of cake."

Kyoya nodded in understanding.

"Yes, I think it's safe to say that you're hardly like most girls we know," he acknowledged. "But I had a point to this."

"Sorry," I said, blushing. I talked to much. I already knew that. Kyoya chuckled.

"It's quite alright. I was going to ask you what you thought so far?"

I blinked and looked over at him. He watched me with those cool, dark eyes, his expression bland.

"Well, it looks fine," I allowed. "Just not finished."

"We have five trees coming in," he reminded me. "They should be here any time now."

"It's not the trees that are missing," I shook my head. "It's missing that…I don't know, that holiday spirit, I guess. It's missing some warmth. It looks great, but it also looks kind of…shallow, like it doesn't have any depth, know what I mean?"

Kyoya looked at me thoughtfully, then around at the room. He nodded and wrote something down on his clipboard.

"You may be onto something, Haruhi," he said with another nod. "I'll go speak with Tamaki. The twins can go ahead and show you where we store the ornaments."

Like he summoned them, the twins apparated before us, their hands already up in salutes. I sighed, feeling my shoulders slump. Other than the fact that he was the Icy Shadow King, I could hold relatively sane conversations with Kyoya without fear of losing my mind to madness. Unfortunately, the same did not hold true for the twins. I loved all of them, truly I did, but some of them I loved in…smaller doses. The twins were in that category. Oh, well. Might as well have some fun.

"C'mon, Haruhi!" said Hikaru, looping his arm through mine.

"The storage area is through here," elaborated Kaoru, linking with my other elbow.

Together they didn't lead me so much as drag me to the storage area, skipping and whistling as they did. Behind me, I heard Kyoya relaying my observations to Tamaki, who agreed loudly and a little too readily after he caught my name. I shook my head. That guy needed to get over that daddy-complex thing he had going on.

"Each tree normally has a different theme, and there's one for each of the Hosts," said Hikaru.

"Yeah. Me and Hikaru get one, Mori-senpai and Hunny-senpai share, then Tamaki-senpai gets one, Kyoya-senpai gets one, and so do you. That's five this year."

"It's a pain in the butt getting Tamaki-senpai to just pick a theme for his tree," sighed Hikaru. "Kyoya's is usually pretty boring, but kind of cool, I guess."

"The only say Mori gets on his and Hunny is which ornaments go up high," laughed Kaoru. "He's just in charge of putting stuff up top. Not that he cares much either way. If he got his own tree, he probably wouldn't do anything to it anyway."

"And what do you two do to your tree?" I wondered, a little hesitantly.

They gave me what I could only describe as _damn creepy_ smiles, and winked at the same time. A chill travelled down my spine, although I knew that they were just trying to scare me.

"You'll see soon enough, won't you Haruhi?" they leered.

I shook my head.

"Whatever. I'll see for myself."

The twins pouted.

"You're no fun," Hikaru whined.

"She's too used to us," Kaoru sighed.

"And I'm assuming that's never happened before?" I guessed, laughing at their crestfallen expressions.

I already knew that those two hardly had a lot of experience letting people get close enough to them to get used to their antics. They still managed to get under Tamaki's skin, but Mori and Kyoya were completely indifferent. Hunny was hard to scare, but on occasion the brothers managed just fine. They weren't horribly sadistic—only a little—but they did get a pretty huge kick out of freaking others out.

"No, it hasn't," they chuckled together.

"You're the first person we've actually let into our little world," Hikaru said.

I smiled.

"I'm glad you did," I said honestly.

It looked as though, for a change, I had managed to catch them completely off their guard. They gave me the strangest look, and tightened their arms in mine. Then they burst out laughing.

"That's enough of the deep stuff," Kaoru said, still grinning.

"Let's show you our stash," his brother smirked.

Together they opened the double doors into the prep room, where they kept most of their things. I blinked. Someone had clearly already pulled out the Christmas stuff. And there was a lot of it.


	3. Oh, Christmas Tree

Five Christmas trees. Five gigantic, real Christmas trees, cut earlier that same day. That was what arrived while Hikaru, Kaoru and I were all dragging out box after box of tree decorations. The delivery people had a really tough time getting each of the five trees through the music room doors. When they were finally finished, Kyoya gave the exhausted men a tip and bid them safe travel.

It was Mori and Tamaki's job to move the trees where they were supposed to go. The largest one—probably nearly fifteen feet tall—went right by the platinum blonde "Prince-character's" preferred seating area. One of almost identical stature went to the spot where Kyoya spent most of his time, though he didn't have a designated area to entertain the girls that came. After that, the other trees stood at roughly ten feet, I think, and were taken to their respective spots each at Hunny and Mori's spot, the twins', and finally mine.

With a rather frightening war cry, Hunny had flung himself upon the stack of boxes with his name printed on them in big bold letters, and hauled them to his tree, with his cousin's help. Out of that box he pulled all manner of mismatched ornaments, mostly consisting of various types of cute animals. I expected the strings of popcorn and the many, many candy canes that followed.

Shifting my attention, I saw Kyoya sifting through the crates until he found one particular one. He carried it to his tree, popped the lid, and started pulling things out. The first thing I saw was a small set of very realistic white doves—four or five—and a little fake nest with tiny eggs in it. Then he pulled out several long strings of silver beads, and ornament icicles. Huh. Never picture Kyoya as the classy simple Christmas type, but then, he probably had the most class of anyone in the Host Club, aside from _maybe_ Tamaki, who had knowledge of etiquette, but was just too goofy to put it to use.

The decorations in Tamaki's multitude of crates were extremely eclectic, leading me to believe that he never used them all at once. There were three roles of glittering, shiny tinsel in gold, silver, and red laying on the floor beside the tree. Next to them was the angel that would adorn the very top of the tree, with ivory skin, long, dark brown hair, and a flowing red gown. A small golden tiara adorned her dark head.

"Haruhi! Aren't you going to decorate your tree?" called one of the twins. Hikaru. I started from my observations and looked around. The twins were rummaging through their bins, but Hikaru had paused and was looking at me expectantly.

"I've got my own decorations back at home," I said self-consciously. "I called my dad and asked him to bring them over."

"Well, then you can help us until he's here!" said Kaoru, fighting to find the end of the spool of scarlet beads he held.

I shrugged.

"Sure, why not?"

"You can help us pick which things to put on this year," said Hikaru, waving me over and pointing me toward another of their boxes. "That one has about half of the ornaments. Just pick the ones you like that'll look good."

I laughed a little.

"Sure thing, Hikaru."

He gave me a puzzled look.

"I'm Kaoru, Haruhi."

My laughter increased.

"No you're not," I chuckled, shaking my head. "I thought we'd already established that you can't fool me with that."

Hikaru laughed as well, and it sounded kind of relieved.

"Yeah, well, I can still try, can't I?"

"You would even if you couldn't," I pointed out, popping the lid off of my assigned box.

My jaw may or may not have hit the floor, I'm not entirely sure I remember. What I do remember is seeing more fancy, frighteningly delicate-looking ornaments than I had ever thought I would. Some were classic, round ones, but engraved with such detailed and delicate patterns that my hands started to cramp for whoever had done them. Others were carved into such perfect, symmetrical shapes and given such minute detail that I found myself wondering how a human could possibly manage it.

Shaking off my initial daze, I set to work sorting out the ornaments I thought the twins should use. There was a set of twenty-four gold stars, each about the size of the palm of your hand—unless your hands are positively huge—that I pulled out. A set of six, four-inch-tall angels garbed in white, four blowing trumpets, and two apparently singing. Several round, golden ornaments layered over with spirals of bright crimson that were roughly the size of Mori's fist.

I glanced over at what the guys were pulling out of their own bins. Kaoru was clearly working with the garlands and the bows, pawing through roll after roll and can after can to find the perfect ones. Dark red satin bows were laying beside him in a foot-tall pile, and that role of gold beads was sitting beside him, the end still evading discovery. Right then he pulled out a strand of beads the same color as the bows, examining it carefully.

Beside him, it looked like Hikaru had the bin with the other half of the ornaments. I suppressed a smile when I saw his choices. A set of gold stars, probably twelve, of a slightly larger size than mine. Twelve little cherubs with disproportionate wings, the way they were always painted, matched my fully grown angels. Elongated golden ones with stripes of gold twisting around them.

Hikaru had been keeping tabs on my choices. Right then, though, he seemed engrossed in searching for something, so with a smirk, I turned back to my crate. My eyes fell on a single ornament that had somehow escaped my notice at my primary inspection. It looked boring at first glance—just a fairly large, round gold ornament with one flat face. But the flat face was covered by a very thin sheet of glass, and between the glass and the ornament was a thin gap. It was meant to hold a photograph.

A quick look at the brothers told me they were still engrossed in their own separate searches. I dug my wallet out of my pocket and flicked it open. I had a photo that looked to be about the right size for the ornament. It was of everyone in the Host Club. Mori, Kyoya, and Tamaki stood in the back, smiling. Well, Tamaki was smiling. Kyoya had his Devil's Advocate smirk, and Mori was…well, Mori. In front of them stood myself and the twins. Somehow I'd gotten stuck in between those two, and each of them had an arm around my shoulders and were leaning their heads extremely close to mine. In front of us was, of course, Hunny, holding his Usa-chan and staring at the camera like it was made of cake.

Careful not to tear it, I tugged the photograph from my wallet and tested to see if it would fit. It was a little small, so you could see the back of the "frame", but it fit. With a self-satisfied smile, I set it aside with the other ornaments and continued my search.


	4. Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

The trees all looked very good. Kyoya's was nice and simple, very classy. Artfully spaced throughout his branches were those little white doves, and on a branch below a dove that had its wings outstretched was nestled the little nest with its eggs. He'd have enough icicles to hang that he hadn't needed any traditional ornaments, and I had to say, it looked great. He'd taken some fake snow as well and dusted it over the boughs. There was a star at the top of his instead of an angel; an ivory one with gracefully thin arms and gold filigree around the edges.

Hunny's tree was very obviously _Hunny's tree_. Ornaments of cute-looking critters, accompanied by actual stuffed animals sitting a little farther in the trees, were Hunny's main decoration. Mori had done a good job of making sure Hunny didn't go too crazy with the candy canes or the popcorn strings, and it looked very cute. In place of an angel or a star, Hunny had set his second-favorite stuffed animal at the top of his tree.

Tamaki's was classy, of that there was no denying. I'd be the first to admit that the man had great taste. He was just a loon. He'd kept it surprisingly simple, for Tamaki-style. Simple round ornaments of both gold and red, of varying sizes, were spaced carefully through his tree's branches. Of course, most of the ornaments had beautiful designs painted on them, but it was simple for my senpai. He'd taken a couple packages of that loose gold tinsel stuff, and decorated the tree with it as though the tinsel strands were icicles. With the scarlet garland that wound around the tree, it was quite nice. His angel was perched gracefully on top, a gold lyre in her arms and a halo accompanying her tiara.

The twins was my favorite, though that might be because I helped them with it. I had advised Kaoru to take both the red and the gold beads—once he found where the strings began—and twist them around each other before the tree, and he'd taken my suggestion. Pretending not to notice that Hikaru's choices matched mine perfectly—though, he still blushed when I looked at his selection—I decided we'd split up his larger stars mostly through the larger section of the tree, nearer the bottom. I scattered the smaller stars around the top, with Mori and a ladder for assistance, and mixed the remaining ones among Hikaru's. The angels were next, my larger ones staying closer to the ground so that the tree didn't appear top heavy, and his little cherubs "flying" around the upper portion. After that, the slightly more traditional adornments went up, still separated enough so as not to look overdone. The last ornament had been met with startled looks from both Hikaru and Kaoru, who claimed not to have known they had an ornament like that. The angel we had all chosen together: a woman with fair skin, strawberry blonde hair, and a gold gown. In her tiny little doll hands she held a violin.

My tree was easily the most boring, with the decorations my dad had brought me. Every Christmas before my mom had died, we would get together near the beginning of the cold season and dry red rosebuds. Then we'd string them together with dried cranberries and add them to the ones we'd made the previous year. The result was that while they weren't all terribly long, there had been just enough to adorn my Christmas tree this year. Also, my mom and I had made little bundles of cinnamon sticks, about twenty every year, and satchels filled with rosemary and rose petals. Needless to say, our Christmas trees and decorations were always very fragrant. However, they weren't the most aesthetic most of the time.

"What are you talking about, Haruhi?" demanded Hikaru when I voiced my thoughts. "Your tree looks great!"

"Yes, I've never seen a tree decorated like that before," said Kyoya, walking around and looking at it from every angle. "It's quite unique."

"I love it!" said Hunny, leaping at me and flinging his arms around my neck. "If Haru-chan decorated it, then there's no way it could be ugly. Plus, it smells pretty!"

I laughed.

"Thanks Hunny-senpai," I said, patting him on the head.

"I think your tree is amazing," said Kaoru. "I like how simple it is."

"Haruhi! Your tree is so adorable! Just like you, my little girl!" cried Tamaki in his customarily melodramatic way. He ran at me to give me what would undoubtedly be a very smothering hug, but Mori caught him by the back of his jacket.

"Let me go right now!" he wailed, legs still moving even though he was going nowhere. It was like watching a cartoon or something.

I shook my head.

"Well guys, if we're done for the day, I think I'll be heading home," I said, picking up my bag.

The room looked great, but it was still missing that warm something…Oh, I was being silly. It'd be better when the customers were there. It was probably just too extravagant for the amount of people enjoying it just then.

"See you tomorrow, Haruhi!" Hikaru called.

"Yeah, see ya!" echoed his brother.

"By Haru-chan!" called Hunny from on top of Mori's broad shoulders.

"Yeah, bye," said Mori blandly, holding Hunny's ankles before the tiny third year fell to the floor. I smiled softly. Any amount of acknowledgment from Mori was like a huge, emphatic speech from Tamaki.

"Make sure you're not late, Haruhi," Kyoya reminded. "We'll need to put the finishing touches on the decorations before the guests arrive, after all."

"I'll be on time," I promised. Of course, he only spoke to make sure I'd keep punctual, but some sort of send-off is better than none, especially where Kyoya was concerned.

"Good bye my sweet little Haruhi!" cried Tamaki. "Have sweet dreams tonight! We'll see you bright and early tomorrow!"

"Bye everyone," I said, waving my hand as I left Music Room Three.

I never thought I would consider such a mismatched group of guys, all with their own agendas, as my friends, let alone like a part of my family. But damn, surprises come in all shapes and sizes. The Host Club truly was like one big, usually happy family. All the dynamics were there, and the way we could all come together when we needed to spoke volumes about the unique relationships we shared. I'd gone from being the errand-boy to being a full-fledged Host, and everyone there respected me, whether they admitted it or not.

Mori, the man of few words, had shared those few words with me. Kyoya, who didn't seem to care for much at all, had come through for me several times and kept my father updated on how I was doing. Tamaki was…well, Tamaki was always eccentric, but I think he took that to a fantastic degree with me, and I was grateful at the same time that I was annoyed. Hunny seemed to love everybody, so I wasn't a hundred percent sure where I stood with him. And of course, the twins. The two halves of the same whole, who had never had need of anybody but each other. They'd never had real friends, never really let anybody in completely, even after they joined the Host Club. Until me. Not only did I hear from them that I was the first person to fully enter their world, but many girls—and guys—had approached me and mentioned the special bond there. After I had come into the picture, the twins had been more open with everybody, talking and joking and laughing more than ever before.

I was proud of that.


	5. Tis The Season

"Haruhi, I love your tree," crooned two of my regulars.

I had to say, it was still a little strange to have girls constantly hitting on me, but I played it off to the best of my ability, and they didn't try to push me into stupid things like what Tamaki did.

A week had gone by, and Christmas Eve was tomorrow. Kyoya hadn't been lying; the Host Club was more popular than I'd ever seen it, now that the holidays seemed to be in full swing, and I was hard-pressed to keep up with the floods of girls wanting to experience the glow of the club's festivity.

Nothing was missing now, because after I had left, it seemed the rest of the guys had started an arts and crafts project, making detailed gold and red snowflakes the size of dinner plates, covered in glitter, and hung them everywhere. Candles had been added to any and all available flat surfaces, and in the background Christmas music played, classic carols like _Jingle Bells, Carol of the Bells, _and _Silent Night_. It was warm and cozy.

"Really? Thanks," I said, glancing over at it. Someone had come in before I arrived and strung lights around all of the trees, so that they sparkled and glowed. "My mom and I made those decorations when I was little."

"You _made_ them?" said one girl in awe. "That's so amazing!"

"I'll bet it was hard work," the other girl said, sizing up the tree.

"No, actually, it was a lot of fun," I laughed. "They were actually pretty easy to make. The strings of rosebuds took time, just because they had to dry upside-down first."

"Why upside-down?" wondered the first girl.

"Well, if you don't hang them like that, then they'll lose their color," I told them. "And we wanted to preserve the color, obviously. One of my friends from middle school made those satchels herself—she was great with string."

"That's so cool," they sighed.

I glanced at my watch.

"Well, ladies, time's about up for today," I told them, rising to my feet so that I could escort them to the door. "I'll see you girls after the holidays."

"Wait, Haruhi!" they said together. I blinked and looked at them. They were blushing profusely, fiddling with their fingers in their laps.

"We, uh…We got a present for you," said the girl on the left quietly. I blinked again, and say back down.

"You didn't need to do that," I told them graciously. "Just seeing you every day is enough of a gift."

They swooned. Wow, I was really getting good at this.

"Well, it's for your tree," said the other girl, sliding a medium sized box from beneath her chair.

"We noticed that you didn't have a tree topper or anything for it," explained her friend.

"So…we got one for you. I hope you like it."

I accepted their gift with some surprise, but did not object. I knew objections would be futile with girls like this—it would either make them feel bad, or they would go and faint from how cute it was…again. So instead I pulled the simple red lid off of the box, and felt it slip through my fingers onto the floor at my feet.

The golden star was easily the most beautiful I had ever seen, not that I had seen an overwhelming amount. It had the classic five arms, long and fairly thin, embedded with rich red accent stones and patterns. Three points stuck out from between each main arm, smaller than the first five, and were also embellished with vibrant red markings. In the center was a multi-faceted red gem that I'd bet my apartment was a genuine ruby, cut into the shape of a star with many arms.

"Girls…" I said, speechless. "It's amazing. Thank you."

"So you like it?" they squealed. I nodded.

"I love it. Thanks a bunch."

"We're so glad!" they said as they climbed to their feet. "Well, we'll go now. See you after the holidays, Haruhi!"

I nodded. I didn't even want to know how much the star cost, especially when, upon closer inspection, I confirmed that the center stone was most likely a real ruby and not an imitation. It was beautiful, but I was terrified that just by touching it I would get it dirty.

"Whatcha got there, Haruhi?" said a voice in my ear. I leapt to my feet, barely keeping a hold on the star, and gave a startled yelp.

"Hikaru!" I gasped, looking around to glare at him. He was leaning over the back of my sofa, grinning like he always did, hazel eyes sparkling with mischief. "Quit doing that!"

He held up his hands in mock surrender.

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry," he said, not sounding sorry in the slightest. "What did those girls give you?"

I sat back down in my seat, heart still beating a little too fast, and showed him the contents of the box I held. Hikaru let out a low whistle.

"They must really like you," he observed, plucking the star from the box and looking at it from every viewpoint. "These things aren't cheap, not even for us."

"You wanna help me put it on?" I blurted. His eyes flicked to me, glinting with surprise.

"Me?" he checked. "Wouldn't Mori-senpai or Tamaki-senpai be better for that? They're taller than I am."

"Yeah, but I asked _you_," I chuckled. "Besides, it looks like those two are still entertaining."

They were. Tamaki couldn't seem to get rid of his current gaggle of giggling girls, and Hunny was using Mori as a climbing gym for their entourage. I looked back at Hikaru. His hazel eyes were already watching me.

"Alright," he consented. "You want me to hold the ladder?"

"Sure," I nodded. He handed the star back to me and went to fetch said ladder from the other room. I smiled down at the star, turning it around in my fingers.

"Hey, Haruhi," said Kaoru, coming over. I looked up.

"Hey, Kaoru," I greeted him.

"You're coming to the Boss's Christmas party, right?"

I blinked.

"I didn't know he was having one," I said, confused.

"How could you not?" demanded the younger of the two twins. "He's been going on about it for weeks. That's how I couldn't believe you'd forgotten how close Christmas was. He can't shut up about it!"

"Yeah, well, I kind of tune him out most of the time," I admitted with a laugh.

Kaoru sighed and ran a hand through his mussed red hair. He was trying to pull off a self-suffering expression, but his amusement shone through.

"I guess there's just no helping you, is there?" he said with a shake of his head. I shrugged, and he continued. "Well, Hikaru and I will pick you up at one tomorrow, okay? And pack extra clothes, 'cause it'll be an over-nighter."

"Wait, hang on," I said, whipping my head up to look at him. "I didn't say I was going yet!"

"No, I did. Didn't you recognize my voice?" laughed Kaoru.

"Why you—"

"Hey, Hikaru's back," he said, pointing to the doors to the prep room where Hikaru had gone. Indeed, his twin had returned with the ladder. Using my distraction as an excuse to dance away, Kaoru left with a lingering chuckle. I shook my head and mentally erased any of the plans I'd had for this weekend. My dad would be busy working anyway.

"Ready to get the star up?" asked Hikaru, propping the ladder up. "It's a little late, but we might as well, right?"

I nodded.

"Yeah. Just hold the ladder steady."

"I will," he promised.

Smirking, I quickly scrambled up, the star gripped tightly in my right hand.

"Don't fall, Haruhi!" Hikaru called, and he jiggled the ladder. I yelped and gripped the metal tighter.

"Don't do that, Hikaru, and I won't!" I snapped.

"Right, right," he said, amusement dripping from his voice.

I shook my head, and scaled the rest of the ladder. Perched precariously on the highest step, I carefully set the star on the top of the tree, securely enough that it wouldn't fall. With a self-satisfied grin, I started back down. I was about a third of the way down when the ladder wobbled more vigorously.

"Hikaru, cut it out!" I snapped, but when I glanced down, I saw that it wasn't his fault. Tamaki had him by the front of his shirt, screaming some nonsense about the twin just offering to help me so that he could stare at my ass. I sighed and continued down, holding the sides of the ladder in an iron grip.

"Boss, it wasn't like tha—" Hikaru tried to say.

"Save it!" cried Tamaki. "I know you were just watching Haruhi like the shady twin you are!"

He gave Hikaru a particularly vicious shake, and the ladder staggered again. My fingers fell from the slippery metal, and I felt myself falling backwards.

"Haruhi!" someone shouted.

Instead of landing on the fake-snow-covered floor, something fairly soft and warm broke my fall. I blinked, looked around, and my face flushed from mortification. Hikaru had caught me around the waist, but buckled under the momentum of my fall. So, basically, I'd landed on top of the older twin. He cracked open one bright eye and looked at me.

"Are you alright?" he asked. I nodded. "Then…could you get off me?"

Blushing, I leapt to my feet.

"Haruhi! Are you okay?!" Tamaki cried, yanking me into a rib-cracking hug. "Don't scare Daddy like that!"

"You're still not my daddy," I grumbled. "You should be more worried about Hikaru."

I extracted myself from Tamaki's arms and offered Hikaru a hand. He took it and I helped him up, brushing off some of the fake snow.

"Are you okay?" I asked. He nodded. "Thanks."

"Hikaru!" Kaoru cried, barreling through everyone to get to his brother's side.

What followed was a similar scene to the show they offered their patrons. The whole "Forbidden-brotherly-love-twincest" thing, you know. I shook my head, and looked up at the star. Well, at least we'd gotten it up, and it did look good. Really good.

"Haruhi, make sure you get plenty of sleep tonight," called Kaoru, breaking momentarily from the brotherly-love performance. "You probably won't get any tomorrow."

I sighed.

"I'll do that."


	6. White Christmas

"You're not wearing _that_, are you?" Hikaru demanded, looking down at my jeans and gray turtleneck.

"I thought it was pretty obvious," I said, hefting my bag higher onto my shoulder.

"Absolutely not," exclaimed Kaoru, pushing past his brother to hand me a bag.

"What's this?" I said suspiciously.

"We figured you wouldn't have something respectable to wear," said Hikaru with a shrug.

"So, we got you this. It's a sweater dress. Perfect for the holidays," said Kaoru.

"Are you guys really gonna make me wear this?" I sighed. They nodded.

"Even if we have to force it over your head," they said together, giving me their best leer. I shook my head.

"Dream on," I said, suppressing a smirk. "I'll be right back."

"We'll wait here."

I took the bag into the bathroom and pulled the dress out. I had to admit, it was nice. The twins usually exhibited good taste as far as clothing was concerned. It was a dark hunter's green, made of a thickly woven material. The hemline would stop at about my knees, and had a thin zigzagging white pattern. It had a very thick neck designed to fold over like a turtleneck, but didn't really have as much of a function. The sleeves were long, and would be tight on my arms, but probably without being uncomfortable.

With a heavy sigh, I stripped off my nice, simple clothing and donned the sweater dress. My observations had been pretty much on the mark. The hem ended just above my knees, the neck served no purpose but to look cool, and the sleeves hugged my arms without constricting blood flow. What I hadn't expected was for the material to cling to me like it did. It wasn't actually tight, but it acted almost like it was static, hugging my body without being completely obscene. Alright, even I'll admit that in the mirror, it did look good. Still, being around the guys from the club dressed in that might be…interesting.

"Are you finished changing yet?" Kaoru called.

"We brought boots for you, too!" Hikaru said. "We had to guess on the size, though."

I shook my head and left the bathroom, folding up my other clothes and setting them neatly on the couch. When I looked up, Hikaru was just staring at me, his bright eyes unfocused. Kaoru was looking between me and his brother, apparently fighting laughter.

"That looks great on you!" Kaoru said. He kicked his brother's shin, and he jerked out of his daze.

"Y-yeah," agreed the older of the brothers clumsily. I raised an eyebrow, but said nothing, accepting the shoebox Kaoru held out to me without a word.

Inside the shoebox was the fanciest pair of boots that had ever found their way into my hands. Black leather, with a thick, maybe once-inch heel, and silver buckles around the ankles and the tops, which would reach about mid-calf.

"Guys, is all this really necessary?" I wondered even as I pulled them on. They hugged my calves securely, and my feet fit perfectly.

"Of course it is! You can't go to a Christmas party dressed all boring," the twins chided me.

"Alright, I'm all changed," I told them, tossing my tennis shoes into a corner. "But that's as far as I'm going. No make-up, no extensions, no jewelry, got it?"

The twins pouted, but didn't argue with me.

"Fine," grumbled Kaoru. "Let's go then. Hikaru, you get to carry her bag."

"What? How come I have to carry it?" exclaimed Hikaru in outrage.

"Because I said so!" jeered his younger brother, sticking his tongue out and disappearing out onto the landing.

"Why you—"

"Guys, I can carry my own bag," I said, hefting it back onto my shoulder.

Hikaru paused halfway through leaping after Kaoru, giving me an appraising look.

"Are you sure?" he checked, eye on the bag. "It looks kind of heavy."

"I'm fine," I assured him. "Just fine."

"Well…" he said hesitantly, scratching the back of his head. "Alright, but don't tell the Boss. He'd have a litter of flying kittens if he thought that we made you carry your own bag."

I stared at Hikaru.

"What?" he said hastily, noticing my look. My lips twitched. "What'd I say?"

"A…litter…of flying…kittens?" I echoed. Then I burst out in raucous laughter, dropping my bag on the floor. "I've never heard _that_ one before, Hikaru!"

Through the tears in my eyes, I saw the twin give a smug smile at having made me laugh.

"Well, to be fair, he probably would," Kaoru noted, peering around the doorframe. "Now, are you two ready to go or what? The limo's waiting on the street, and you know the driver we've got today isn't very patient, Hikaru."

"Yeah, yeah," said his brother airily. "We're coming."

Hikaru held open the door for me, and stood at my shoulder while I locked up behind us.

"Why do you guys lock the doors?" he wondered as I slid the key back into an outside pocket of my bag.

"Well, unlike you rich people, us _commoners_—" I put heavy emphasis on the word "—have to worry about people breaking into our homes sometimes."

"Really?" said Kaoru, aghast. "Why would they want to do that?"

"To steal stuff," I shrugged.

"What do you have that someone would want to steal?" Hikaru wondered. I elbowed him in the gut.

"Not everyone's expectations are as high as yours," I pointed out. "They'll take whatever's easy just because they can."

"Huh. That seems kinda lame," said the twins together.

"Yeah, well it's the way the world works," I told them. "The real world, not your rich kid fantasy land."

"Ouch," chuckled Kaoru.

"So harsh," added Hikaru.

"Whatever," I laughed. "Didn't you say we needed to go, Kaoru?"

The boy nodded. "Yup. Let's get moving."

Each of the twins offered an elbow, but linking arms while carrying my small duffel bag was no easy task, so instead they took my hands and pulled me down the stairs to the street. As expected, a shiny black limo was waiting for the three of us, the driver looking displeased at having to wait so long.

"Here, give me your bag," said Hikaru, sliding it carefully off of my shoulder.

"Hikaru, I told you it was fine," I sighed.

"Yeah, I know," he laughed. "I was just gonna go put it in the trunk."

"Oh. Okay then," I allowed him to take it around to the back of the limo.

"Ladies first, of course," said Kaoru, pulling the door open for me.

I rolled my eyes and slid inside the plush, if slightly cramped, interior. As per usual for these damn rich kids' rides, there was a funky multi colored lighting system, a mini fridge with various choices of expensive, imported sodas and fancy snacks, and soft leather seats encompassing the cab. There was even a small television screen on the wall that divided the passenger's cab from the driver's seat. Presently it showed an image of a crackling fireplace, complete with embers spitting into the air.

"This'll be fun, Haruhi," promised the twins as they climbed in. "We promise."

"I'm gonna hold you guys to that," I said, only half joking. Looking outside through the tinted windows, I saw with some surprise that a light snow had begun to fall. Thick, fluffy white things, like the ends of cue tips, fell from the sky and stuck to the ground like a thin layer of white fuzz.

"Hikaru, look!" Kaoru exclaimed, pointing wildly out of his own window. "It's finally snowing!"

Hikaru followed his brother's gesture, and grinned.

"Great. I was afraid we wouldn't get a white Christmas this year."

_**I wrote all the chapters up to here together, before publishing this story, but from here on out, I'm publishing the chapters as I go. I beg for your patience, and I'm sorry for taking so long to upload anything. School's been kicking the hell outa me lately, and I've had no time. Well, I hope you're enjoying it so far. Any ideas for what activities will go on at Tamaki Suoh's grand party? You know the drill: R&R**_


	7. Let It Snow

"That is…a really big house," I said, staring up at the opulent Suoh mansion.

The twins looked up for a minute.

"Yeah, guess so," they said in identical bored voices. Then they went around to the back of the car to get their bags as well as mine.

"HARUHI!"

Oh dear God. I looked around to see Tamaki barreling towards me a light speed, arms already outstretched. I looked down at what I was wearing. The twins hadn't thought my ensemble all the way through, clearly, because they hadn't factored in their "Boss" going completely nuts when he saw me dressed like a girl.

"My darling Haruhi, you so cute!" he cried, catching me in his bone crushing embrace and spinning me around faster than a carnival ride.

"S-senpai, cut it out!" I cried, feeling my stomach start to churn.

Far from being discouraged, Tamaki squeezed me even more tightly.

"Hey Boss!" Hikaru shouted, coming back around. "Pretty sure she told you to quit!"

"I will cuddle with my Haruhi if I want to, you shady twin!" Tamaki shouted. Several loud thumps sounded, and a spray of snow fell down the back of my dress. Was Hikaru throwing snowballs at Tamaki?

"Kaoru, give me a hand, would you?" called Hikaru, sounding vaguely exasperated.

"With wha—oh, alright," I heard Kaoru respond.

Just a second later, and I landed back on my feet, Tamaki's arms vanishing. I looked around, trying to shake off the dizziness, and saw the twins forcibly restraining the self-proclaimed Host Club King. He was fighting and kicking and screaming like a toddler, but the twins were holding onto him just fine.

"Haruhi, your bag is by the trunk," said Hikaru, jerking one of Tamaki's arms further behind his back. "You can go ahead and take it inside."

"I'll get it ."

I glanced over at the door that Tamaki had burst out of. Kyoya was coming down the steps, his hands—for once—free of a clipboard or notebook. He was dressed in black slacks and a crisp white dress shirt beneath a black leather jacket. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, and completely ignored Tamaki's pleading cries.

"Mommy, help me! Don't let these shady twins take my precious Haruhi away from me!" he wailed.

Kyoya's only response was to shake his head and pick my bag off of the ground. A light dusting of snow had already settled on top.

"Come along, Haruhi," he said, offering his free arm. "You'll catch a cold standing out in the snow like this."

I stared at his arm, as though it was a strange appendage that he had just grown out of nowhere. That kind of courtesy I did not often even see from Kyoya, let alone get treated to. He raised a slender eyebrow at me.

"Alright. If you want to stay out here and get sick," he said with a shrug.

He knelt down and took a large handful of snow in his hands, packing it into the rough shape of a ball. Then, he proceeded to stand, walked over to Tamaki, and smash the ball of snow on top of his platinum blonde head.

I rolled my eyes, and my unease dissipated. I wrapped my hand around his elbow, ignoring Tamaki's infuriated shrieks of _"you traitor!"_ and allowed Kyoya to lead me inside. On the doorstep, he brushed off as much snow as he could from my bag, and then did the same to me, flicking it off of my shoulders and raking it out of my hair.

"I hope that bag is waterproof, or your belongings might already be soaked," he said as he opened the double doors.

I didn't reply. Partly because my bag _was_ waterproof, and I didn't think a reply was necessary, and partly because speech capabilities left me when I saw the inside of the mansion. Grand the outside may have been, but it was nothing compared to the sparkling, shining interior with all of its perfect lighting, polished floors and windows, and lines of staff just waiting for somebody to enter.

"Welcome masters," the maids and footmen said together, greeting us with too-friendly smiles.

_Are you seeing this, Mom?_ I thought as I stared around.

"I'll leave your bag here for now," said Kyoya, setting it just inside the door, on a pile of other luggage. "Unless you need something now?"

"Well…your presents are all in there…" I said hesitantly.

"The tree's in the next room over," he said, pointing to the left part of the room, where a huge open doorway lead into…probably an extremely extravagant living space. "You can take them in there, if you want. Mori and Hunny are in there now."

I nodded.

"Great. Thanks, Kyoya."

"If you'll excuse me now, I have some work to do up in my room."

And just like that, the Shadow King took off up the very profligate staircase, pausing only to look at a painting before he disappeared altogether. I shook my head. Of course, even on the Christmas holidays, Kyoya would have work that he just _had_ to do. With an amused smile, I knelt down and unzipped my bag, tugging out each of the six fair-sized presents and setting them in a neat stack on the floor beside me. The wrapping paper was simple—just a green and red candy cane stripe pattern.

"We can take those for you, madam," offered one of the maids, gesturing to the presents.

"No, that's alright," I said with a smile, quickly closing my bag. "Thanks, though."

The maid nodded, though she looked a little put out at being turned down. Carefully I took the stack of presents in my arms, tucking them beneath my chin, and carried them into the room that Kyoya had indicated. If there hadn't been a pile of gifts underneath it, my jaw would have dropped to the floor.

Wall to ivory wall gold carpet, boughs of holly gleaming with bullion accents, tapestries that reached from floor to ceiling. Not only was the single room bigger than my entire apartment, but it had a thousand times the glamour. A tree stood in the center of the high-ceiling room, taller even than those we had used in the club room, and was positively dripping with red and gold beautiful ornaments. Candles were sitting at the ends of some branches, and gold-tinted icicles hung from others. Shining metallic garland wrapped around the entire tree, all the way up to the gleaming star, encrusted with real jewels of many colors.

Beneath the tree was a pile of gifts the likes of which I had never seen. Huge, rectangular boxes wrapped in gift paper that I would be horrified to tear apart. Big square boxes that I could probably fit comfortably inside. Presents of all different shapes and sizes, exploding from the base of the tree in exorbitant numbers.

_Damn rich people_.

Something told me that, even with all of the presents under the tree, someone would still be less than thrilled about their haul. And that was just kind of pathetic.

"Haru-chan!"

I looked around to see a tiny boy with auburn hair sprinting for me.

"Hunny-senpai, don't—" I cried, fearing that he was about to leap at me. I needn't have worried. He hadn't made it far when Mori caught the back of his jacket and lifted him onto his own shoulders instead.

"Mitsukuni," he said in his low baritone voice. "Her arms are full."

Hunny turned his huge brown eyes to me, as if just noticing the presents I was carrying.

"Oh hey, you're right," he said. "Haru-chan, what did you get for me?"

"You'll find out tomorrow, won't you?" I laughed, setting the presents carefully down on the already gigantic pile. Next to all the others, my gifts looked pitifully small.

"But I wanna know now!" he whined. "I'll tell you what I got for you!"

I smiled.

"Cake?"

He looked thunderstruck.

"How did you know?!"

"Lucky guess," I said with a wink.

The deep, rumbling laugh I didn't expect. I started and looked around, half expecting to find that someone else was in the room. But there wasn't. It was just Hunny, Mori, and myself. Slowly, disbelievingly, I looked up at Mori. He was still smiling, his dark eyes sparking with amusement. Had he…Had _Mori_ just…laughed?

Sweet baby Jesus, Christmas Miracles really did exist!


	8. Love Came Down at Christmas

We were all sitting in large, squashy armchairs and couches around a roaring fire in the foyer. The twins had managed to squeeze in on either side of me on one of the sofas before Tamaki could, and now he was pouting in the far corner, throwing sulky looks at all of us every once in a while. For the past hour or so, the guys had been swapping stories of past Christmases with each other, comparing the trips they'd taken and the presents they'd each received.

"Remember when we went to Disneyland in Tokyo, Kaoru?" said Hikaru.

"Yeah, other than the amount of commoners, it was a lot of fun," nodded Kaoru.

"Last year me and Takashi went to Spain," said Hunny from where he sat curled in Mori's lap. "It was really fun."

Even Kyoya was participating in the recollection party.

"A couple years back my sister and I went to America," he said. "We stayed in New York for about a week. It was an…interesting experience."

"Were the Americans as rude as everyone says?" asked Kaoru eagerly.

"Yeah, were they all overweight too?" wondered his brother.

Kyoya chuckled.

"Well, no, they weren't all pleasant, and some were rather obese. But quite a few were decent as well."

Hikaru snorted.

"Huh. You probably didn't meet very many," he said, leaning back.

"Guys, you shouldn't say stuff like that," I chastised. "I'm sure they aren't all rude pigs."

Kaoru shrugged.

"Whatever you say, Haruhi," he sighed.

"Hey Haru-chan, why don't you tell us something you've done on Christmas?" suggested Hunny.

Tamaki perked up a little, peering over the arm of his chair. He scooted it closer to the ring of all our own seats. The twins both nudged me with their shoulders.

"Yeah, tell us Haruhi," they said together. I shrugged, a bemused expression crossing my face.

"It's not exactly exciting," I warned them. They all leaned forward anyway—even Kyoya and Mori showed some interest. "Most of the time, before my mom died, we would all stay home together for Christmas. She would bake all these special foods. My favorite one was her pumpkin role. It was really good. We'd sit together in the living room, her, Dad, and me, and we'd make those rosebud strings. We told stories and watched silly movies and ate whatever my mom made. We had a tradition that, on Christmas Eve, we each opened one present. Only one, but it was a fun little thing."

The twins were leaning into me, though honestly I don't think that they realized it. Tamaki was leaning almost out of his seat, staring at me with rapt attention. Hunny was like Tamaki in miniature, and Mori's face showed significant curiosity. Kyoya had gone so far as to set aside his clipboard so that he could give me his full attention.

"We never had a bad Christmas, where someone was angry with someone else. Even if we were mad, the holidays made it easy for us to brush it off. Even if I was in a huge fight with my friends, we couldn't stay made through the holidays. They brought us together. After Mom died…well, me and my dad really needed those holidays. Stress got to us in a bad way—especially to him—and sometimes we'd get so short tempered that we would just snap at each other. But we still embraced Christmas. I think that…it's one time of year that we feel closer to her."

To my utter astonishment, Hikaru's hand covered mine on my knee, giving my fingers a gentle squeeze. His brother followed half a second later, but for some reason, I felt Kaoru was trying to cover for his twin.

I shook my head.

"I never thought of Christmas as the time for presents," I continued. "Sure, I got excited for them, but it was just one part of the holiday. Christmas, to me at least, was all about being with my family, without arguing or getting drunk stupid. We all had fun together, and we bonded over dinner and over the gifts. We used Christmas as an opportunity to love each other, not as a time to buy each other expensive things. Same for my friends. We were all just a little closer after the holidays."

There was a moment of silence. Then—

"That was beautiful, Haruhi!" wailed Tamaki. He was bawling is eyes out, snot dribbling from his nose and tears streaming down his cheeks. Kyoya tossed a package of tissues at him—it hit him in his forehead.

"That was definitely enlightening, Haruhi," agreed the third Ootori son.

"I loved your story!" squealed Hunny, leaping off of Mori's lap and onto mine. "Especially the part about your mom baking special foods. Did she make cake?"

I laughed and nodded.

"Yeah, Hunny-senpai," I told him. "The pumpkin role was sort of like cake."

"Mmm…cake…" he said dreamily.

I laughed again and shooed him back over to Mori. Only then did I realize that the twins were silent beside me.

"Hikaru?" I said. "Kaoru? Something wrong?"

Like they were joined by some invisible rope, they started out of their daze in the same moment. The color in Hikaru's cheeks darkened slightly, and he pulled his hand away from mine. I raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.

"N-no, it's nothing," they said together.

"I bet the part about her friends and family bonding really got to them, didn't it?" said Hunny, probably to Mori.

"Hey, what time is it?" said Kaoru, clearly trying to change the subject.

Hikaru checked his phone.

"It's…seven forty-two. What do you guys want to do?"

"Well…" said Tamaki thoughtfully. "We could watch some Christmas movies. I have quite a selection in our movie room upstairs."

_Movie room? Mom, I don't think I'm cut out for all of this…_

"Yay! Movies!" shouted Hunny, climbing onto Mori's shoulders as the much larger third-year stood.

"Lead the way, Boss," said the twins, taking one of my hands each.

Tamaki spared the Hitachiin brothers a murderous glare, then rose gracefully to his feet and swept out of the room. We trailed after him as he led us up the first flight of stairs, down a corridor, and through a surprisingly nondescript single door. With a flourish he pushed the door in, and allowed us all to file inside.

What I saw rivaled the movie theatres I'd been to before. Rows of seats much more comfortable than those of a public theatre facing a monstrous screen. Against the same wall as the door was a popcorn machine, a soda fountain with every kind of soda I'd ever heard of—and some I hadn't. A large cupboard proved to be stuffed with sweets, which Hunny immediately attacked with vigor.

"Haruhi, sit by us!" said the twins, hauling me to the back row of chairs.

"I want to sit by my daughter!" Tamaki cried.

"You don't have a daughter," the twins and I said together. The twins looked at me, and doubled over with raucous laughter.

"Tamaki, why don't you pick out the first movie?" suggested Kyoya, before the so-called prince went into full depression mode.

The blonde, easily distracted as he was, perked up at once and hurried off to another room, where I suspected mountains of movies awaited. Taking advantage of Tamaki's diversion, Kaoru pulled me down into the seat on his right. Hikaru sat in the empty seat to _my_ right, casting a sideways look at his brother. Kaoru seemed not to notice, though I found that highly unlike the boy, who could sense anything his brother did from literally a mile away. Most likely Kaoru was simply ignoring Hikaru, which was still rather out of character. I looked between the two brothers concernedly. Were they arguing? And was it for real this time?

"Alright!" said Tamaki, bursting back into the movie room with a most ostentatious air. "First, we will watch _Deck the Halls_, then _Santa Clause_."

He held up the DVD cases for everyone to see. I noticed that _Deck the Halls_ was a remake with someone named Danny Devito, and not the original. _Santa Clause_ had an actor named Tim Allen, who I'd heard of. These movies were fairly new, not classics like I would have expected of Tamaki. Even more surprising was that they were both American movies, though I'm not sure why I imagined it unlikely.

"So put it in!" the twins shouted.


	9. Silver Bells

By the time _Santa Clause_ was finished, it was almost midnight and I was fighting to keep my eyelids open. On my right, Hikaru had nodded off twice—which was three times more than I expected of the mischievous boy—and once his head had landed on my shoulder. I would've left him alone, because it really didn't bother me, but he'd been liking the movie so far and I didn't want him to miss any of it. He'd blushed profusely when I gently prodded him awake and he realized what he was using as a pillow.

"I'm gonna hit the sack, guys," I yawned, standing and stretching as Tamaki flicked the lights back on. "I'm beat."

"Us too," chimed the twins.

Hunny would have agree with us, if not for the fact that he was already asleep on Mori's lap. The near silent figure stood with the smaller one in his arms, careful not to wake his cousin. He made a noise of agreement, and left the room. As if to prove that there was no end to miracles on Christmas Eve and Christmas, Kyoya had actually fallen asleep a couple seats to Kaoru's left, his notebook lying open on his lap. I wasn't brave enough to wake up the Shadow King so that he could take himself to his bedroom, so I left him alone.

"I'll show you to your room, Haruhi," said Tamaki.

"No, we will," the ginger brothers said, throwing their arms around my shoulders like they always did. "After all, we're right across the hallway from her. Whereas _you're_ on the other side of the house. We'd just _hate_ to inconvenience you, Boss."

Their trademark, identical evil smiles said anything but. Tamaki looked like he wanted to argue, but wasn't sure how best to approach it. With a huff, he ended up just leaving the room, grumbling about stupid perverted shady twins as he went.

"Well, Haruhi—" said Kaoru.

"—shall we go?" finished Hikaru.

They took my weary sigh as a yes and led me out of the small theatre. They took me up another flight of stairs, passing several paintings that, at any other time, I would have stopped to admire. We walked down a long corridor until we reached the end. Our rooms were on either side of the hall. Hikaru opened the door for me, and both of them walked me inside.

Even my _one_ bedroom was larger than the apartment my dad and I shared, and that was no exaggeration. A massive four poster bed dominated one corner, complete with curtains that you could draw around it for privacy. A large bookcase stood beside that, and beside the bookcase was a writing desk with an expensive-looking laptop. There was a TV on the wall across from the bed, a huge flat screen standing on a fancy entertainment center. Between the bed and the TV, a sliding French glass door led out onto a large balcony.

"I bet the view from your balcony is amazing," said Kaoru.

"Better than ours, no doubt," grumbled Hikaru.

"The Boss gave us a room that overlooked their swimming pool," said the twins together.

"I thought you'd love something like that?" I said in surprise. They grimaced.

"Not when most of the people that use it look older than this building."

I laughed.

"Let's go check out your view," Hikaru urged, nudging me to the doors.

"Fine, but then you guys leave me alone so I can get some sleep," I said, turning the lock and stepping outside.

The air was freezing, but sandwiched between the twins as I was, I myself felt warm. The balcony was dusted over with snow; we left our footprints behind us as we walked to the stone railing. The twins were probably right—the view probably was fantastic—but in the darkness of near-midnight, it was hard to tell. I could see the lights of the city farther out, and I could tell that there were trees between the house and the town, but other than that, it all sort of blended together.

"Whoa," said Hikaru. I looked over, and found him looking up at the sky. "I've never seen so many stars before."

I followed his gaze. He was right. The midnight blue sky was scattered with millions and millions of stars, all glittering like ice or crystal.

"It's because we're away from all the city lights," said Kaoru. "With less light pollution out here, we can see way more stars."

"Awesome," sighed the older twin.

"Quiet!" I hissed suddenly. They both looked around at me in surprise, but I was focusing my attention outward. I could have sworn I'd heard something out in the trees. There it was again!

"Listen," I whispered, pointing out at the woods. The twins gave me bemused looks, but seemed to turn their focus out.

A second later, and they heard it too.

"Bells," said Hikaru.

"Sleigh bells," Kaoru told him.

"Silver sleigh bells," I decided.

"It's Santa Clause!" laughed the twins together. I laughed and shook my head.

"Well, I came out here with you guys. Now it's time to go to sleep. I'm exhausted."

"Can we sleep with you?" asked Kaoru cheekily.

"Drop dead," I told him, pushing both of them back through the French doors. I shut them quietly behind me, turning the lock.

"Aw, that's not very nice, Haruhi," they pouted.

"Go to sleep in your own room," I sighed, propelling them to the door.

"We'll wake you up bright and early tomorrow," winked Hikaru.

"Actually, it'll be later today now," I said, looking at the clock hanging in my room. It was midnight. Officially Christmas.

The twins smirked and finally bade me goodnight. Hikaru hesitated before following his brother to their room. He reached out and took my hand, raising it to his lips. I blinked, heat rising in my cheeks.

"Merry Christmas, Haruhi," he whispered.

Then he turned on his heel and vanished into his own room. I looked after him for, well, I don't know how long, blushing darkly. The feel of his lips against the back of my hand felt imprinted on my skin. I shook my head. That was just Hikaru being Hikaru, there was no point in letting something as little as that linger.

With a groan I stretched my arms as high as they would go, then closed my door and walked over to my bag. One of the maids had brought it up and set it on the foot of my bed at some point that night, but it didn't seem like anybody had been messing around inside it. It only took a moment for me to kick off the leather boots the twins had lent me, and I took a moment to wiggle my toes after having stuffed them in a shoe slightly more pointy than they were used to. I found the cotton pajama pants and ratty old t-shirt I normally slept in easily, and quickly changed out of the admittedly nice sweater dress.

"I wonder if the twins will even let me return these?" I wondered, looking at both the dress and the boots. Knowing those two, if I tried to give these back, they would just sneak them into my bag before they dropped me off anyway. Still, what would I do with it?

I figured I might as well wait until tomorrow to worry about that, though, because seriously, I was extremely tired. I could barely keep my eyelids open as I crawled into the huge bed. The mattress sank beneath me, until I felt like it was trying to swallow me up. The thick comforter was exceedingly warm and soft, and I cocooned in it until I was wrapped up like a burrito. At best guess, I was asleep before my head even touched the fluffy down pillow, sounds of silver bells still ringing in my ears.


	10. We Wish You a Merry Christmas

_**Thinking up gifts was hard! What the Hell do you buy for spoiled rich kids that already have everything?! Hunny gets sweets, that's easy, but the rest of them? Then there's Haruhi, the commoner that doesn't want anything except fancy tuna!**_

"Haruhi!"

I moaned and rolled over, pulling a pillow over my head.

_Go away…_I thought.

"Haruhi, wake up!"

I pulled the pillow tighter over me.

"Haruhi, it's Christmas! Wake up!"

The pillow was jerked away from me, and the blankets on the bed were thrown back. I yelped at the sudden lack of almost stifling warmth and sprang up. Hikaru held my pillow in his hands, and Kaoru had fistfuls of the covers.

"You guys," I groaned, glancing at the clock. "It's seven o'clock. Since when do you get up this early of your own free will?"

"Since it was Christmas!" they said together. Hikaru grabbed my wrist and hauled me out of bed. "Now come on, let's go open presents!"

I didn't have the energy to argue yet, so I allowed them to pull me out of my room and lead me down the stairs back to the entryway with the tree. There were several maids we passed—I think, anyway—that said something, but I wasn't given any time to reply. The twins were obviously really excited about Christmas.

When we got to the foyer, I was awake enough to register that we were the last ones down. Tamaki was kneeling by the mountains of presents around the tree, checking nametags. He looked up when we entered, greeting us with his trademark sparkling smile. Mori was holding Hunny back from launching at the presents. Kyoya was sitting calmly in an armchair, eyes analyzing the sizes and shapes of the gifts as though trying to assess what they might be hiding.

"Good morning, Haruhi," said Tamaki in one of his rare moments of sanity. "I hope you slept well?"

"Like a rock," I assured him.

"Boss doesn't care how we slept," noticed Kaoru, but he didn't sound too terribly concerned as he steered me to a small couch. I managed to sit at the end this time, so instead of being squashed between the two boys, I was sitting just by Hikaru.

"Everyone's here now!" said Hunny excitedly. "So we can open presents, right Takashi?"

"Hnn," grunted Mori.

"Here, Hunny," said Tamaki, holding out a fair-sized rectangular box. "Start with this one."

The tiny third-year snatched the box from Tamaki's slender fingers and leapt back onto Mori's lap, his little fingers tearing at the shiny wrapping paper.

"Kyoya, here's one for you," continued Tamaki, holding up a thin square package.

Kyoya rose without a word and accepted it from him, returning to his seat and carefully plucking the tape from the wrappings. So boring.

"Hikaru, Kaoru, these are yours." Said as he held up identical boxes. "And Haruhi, here's one for you."

Hikaru grabbed mine for me when he and his brother got their gifts, and he set it on my lap before tearing into his own present.

"Thanks," I said, a touch surprised.

"No problem."

The tag was signed _To Haruhi. From Tamaki. _I quickly tore the silver paper off of the shoebox-sized present to find…huh, a shoebox. Go figure, I guess, huh? Inside was a pair shoes like those the guys had made me wear at the first Host Club ball I'd been forced to participate in. The shoes I wore when they dressed me like the girl I was, that is. Short heels, straps criss-crossing over my feet and ankles, and open toes. They were a simple charcoal color, designed to go with just about anything. My first thought was: _When will I ever wear these?_ Then I considered something else. Something told me the guys had collaborated, and by the end of the day, I'd have plenty of things that would go just fine with those shoes.

Beside me, Hikaru had unwrapped a brand new PC game software, the newest _World of Warcraft_. Kaoru had gotten one as well, probably so that they could interact from separate computers. Those had also been from Tamaki.

Kyoya had gotten the latest, high-end laptop with an internet connection ten times better than the Academy's—and yes, that was extremely fast—and more memory than most any other electronic device. I think Tamaki was making sure that the first round of gifts were all from him, because his name was on the undamaged tag on Kyoya's nearly immaculate yet discarded wrappings.

Hunny had, of course, gotten some fancy sweets. A large, strange looking cake that Tamaki said had come all the way from France, and a collection of colorful pastry things called macaroons.

While we each opened our first present, Tamaki began making piles for every person. The twins rushed their piles, barely waiting until they'd dragged them away before tearing into them. There were such things as gaming systems, new video games, a brilliant gold watch for each of them, and—I had to laugh—combs. Apparently I wasn't the only one that thought the two of them could brush their hair on occasion.

In Hunny's pile were all manners of exotic, imported sweets. Raw sugar cane from the Caribbean Islands, sherbet lemons from Europe, something called divinity that looked like some kind of white whipping cream and smelled three times as sweet. Then of course there were the classic flavored rice cakes, pocky in unusual flavors, and lots of rice candies. And cakes. Lots of little cakes.

The twins got tons of video games, stylish clothes—I think—and new CDs by different artists.

Kyoya got several books on the history of medicine, a text on ancient healing methods, photo books full of astounding images from around the world, and an image editing software that he would doubtlessly put to use making more pictures of me supposedly half-naked.

Mori got a book on foreign forms of martial arts, the first three books in a series about a royal family and their bodyguards, a set of throwing knives, and a pair of kamas.

Tamaki had gotten a good assortment of nice dress shirts, a couple CDs of his own, a book entitled _The Hunger Games_—I'd read that, and it would probably scar him for life—and some photo books from Kyoya that would doubtlessly offer both new cosplaying ideas, and new vacation hot spots.

From Kyoya, I got what he might consider a low-end laptop, but still had amazing internet connection, far more than just the basic survival programs, and a good amount of memory. He also gave me two software uploads, one for viruses, and one for online games. From Hunny I got—you guessed it—an assortment of cakes, but they were different than his usual treats. You could tell by one look that they were top-notch, the finest, not that I was that picky or anything. Tamaki had gotten me a pair of earrings with small diamonds in the shape of snowflakes, a long, red silk dress with golden embroidery, and a small photo book like Kyoya's. From Kaoru, I got several video games that I would probably never get a chance to play, a white leather jacket, and a rope-like silver necklace chain. I wondered at that last one, as it seemed a little simple for the guy. But when I opened a small square package from Hikaru, I understood. Kaoru had gotten the chain, and Hikaru had bought the pendant. It was a fairly large silver heart, with intricate scrollwork embossed in the shining metal.

When I took the pendant out of the velvet lined interior of the box, my fingers brushed a catch on the side. It was a clasp. I looked over at Hikaru, and past him to Kaoru. Both of them seemed riveted on their presents, but then I saw Hikaru's hazel eyes flash in my direction for just an instant. I looked back down at the pendant in my hands, and I flipped the clasp. The pendant—the _locket_—swung open. On one side was a picture carefully trimmed so that it fit perfectly into the pocket. It was of the entire Host Club, and with a start, I realized it was a small version of the photograph I had put in the ornament on their tree back in the club room. On the other side, small words in curling script were etched into the silver.

_To the only one_

_That took the time_

_To see the differences_

_In me and mine._

_Merry Christmas_

I smiled and slid the locket onto the chain.

"Wow, Haruhi, this is great!" said Hikaru, holding up my gift to him. I'd gotten him a CD by one of my favorite bands that he'd caught me listening to before and mentioned that they had a nice sound. "Thanks!"

"You got a friend for Usa-chan!" squealed Hunny, lifting up his new, blue stuffed rabbit.

"New headphones! Thanks, Haruhi!" Kaoru said, holding up the bright blue sound-reducing headphones I'd bought for him.

I'd gotten Mori a book on ancient martial arts still practiced today, and for Kyoya, who'd been complaining consistently about coming up with new cosplay ideas for the club, a book titled _1001_ _Ways to Plan a Party_. Before I had bought it, I'd skimmed the pages, and found some neat things in there. One was a masquerade. And, for Tamaki, I got a shock collar. No, no, I'm kidding! For Tamaki, I got a small box of coupons he could use for my dad. I'd made my dad sign them saying that, when Tamaki used one, my dad would refrain from harassing him for the rest of the day.

"Thanks Haruhi!" called everyone in unison. I laughed. They were really good at acting like total goofballs.

My eyes zeroed in on the many, large boxes that still lay wrapped up.

"Tamaki-senpai, who are those for?" I asked, pointing.

"Those are all for the help," he answered. "They do such good work, I thought they deserved something special. They'll open them up at a later time."

_Huh_, I thought. _That's…really nice._ I never would have expected these spoiled rich kids to buy their servants presents as well as their friends.

"We got stuff for our maids too," added the twins.

"We don't actually have much help at the Ootori mansion," said Kyoya, flipping through one of his books. "But we do get things for the people that are there."

"I got my maids cake!"

I looked between all of them, and felt my smile grow. These guys, whatever their shortcomings, weren't as selfish as I had expected upon meeting them. They were, in all honesty, amazing people, and I couldn't help but be thankful that I had the chance to have them in my life.

"Hey guys," said Kaoru, setting his presents neatly on the floor beside the couch. "The presents are great and all…"

"But…?" I prompted. Hikaru and Kaoru looked at one another.

"But we're _starving_!"


	11. Frosty the Snowman

"Hey, Haruhi?"

I looked up from one of my new books.

"Oh, hey, Hikaru," I said, somewhat surprised that he'd approached me like a normal person instead of scaring the bejeezus out of me. "What's up?"

He shrugged and sat down beside me on the enormous porch. The guys were all engaging in a snowball fight, minus Kyoya of course, and were covered head to foot in the freezing white stuff. Hikaru's bright red hair was clumped together with chunks of snow, and his clothes were soaking wet. A small puddle started forming around him the second he sat down.

"Not much," he said, but his voice implied that, for a change, something was on his mind.

"Something bothering you?" I wondered, closing the cover of _Vampire Academy_ softly.

"No…not exactly," he answered, scratching the back of his neck the way he did whenever he was agitated about something.

I sighed, but let it go.

"You have a ton of snow in your hair," I pointed out.

"Yeah, I know," he said, running a hand over it. "I haven't been inside to brush it yet. The Boss told me I had to dry off at least a little so that I didn't drip all over the marble."

I snorted.

"Yeah, that sounds like something Tamaki-senpai would say," I agreed. "Here, let me help. It's going to be a pain to brush out."

I leaned over and began tugging my fingers through locks of his hair, gently as I could manage. He made a startled noise, but didn't object, so I just combed the worst of the snow plods out of his hair. Every now and then he would wince, and I'd know that I was pulling too hard, but for the most part, he sat there quietly while I de-snowed him.

"There," I said, running my hands through his wet but tangle-free hair. "That's better."

When I tried to lean back, though, Hikaru's arm caught my shoulders, instead pulling me closer.

"Uh, Hikaru, what—" I started.

"Thanks," he interrupted.

"Ah, no problem, but all I did was get some snow out of your hair," I said. My face started to feel warm as he tucked me into his side. He didn't respond.

What was I supposed to do? Normally I'd brand this behavior as nothing more than his usual sexual harassment, and file it away under the "I don't care enough to worry about it" category, but that wasn't it. Not this time. The way he hugged me just then wasn't possessive or antagonistic, like he did whenever Tamaki was around. It was warm and soft and almost…_shy_. Like he was hesitant or afraid at how I would react. This behavior was so far from the norm that I wasn't quite sure what I was supposed to do in response. Should I push him away? Wrap my arm around him in turn?

Finally I decided it couldn't hurt to play along. I leaned into him, despite the fact that he was still really wet from all the snow he'd gotten covered in. He stiffened for a moment, most likely surprised by my response. Then his arm tightened around my shoulders.

"You're wearing your necklace," he noted.

My hand reached up and fingered the heavy silver locket dangling from my throat. I'd debated briefly on whether or not I should wear it when I changed into my clothes for the day. The twins had broken into my room while I slept and taken all of the clothes I had packed, switching them for soft wool slacks and a thick, "stylish" sweater. The necklace had been the perfect length to hang around the loose neck of the lax turtleneck, and I was sure that was intentional.

"Yeah," I replied. "Why wouldn't I?"

Hikaru shrugged.

"I don't know. I'm glad you liked it."

"Haru-chan!" squeeled Hunny. I looked up. "Look! I made a snowman!"

He'd had Mori roll three huge balls of snow, each one slightly smaller than the previous, and stacked them on top of each other. Asymmetrical twigs jutted out from either side of the midsection of the snowman like thin, strange-looking arms. Hunny had wrapped a scarf around the place where the top and middle snowballs met, and used black buttons from who knows where as the snowman's eyes and mouth. A long, pointed, orange carrot stuck out from the center of the snowman's face, a cartoonish version of a nose. A top hat sat askew on his head.

"His name is Frosty!" Hunny said happily. "I heard a song on the radio called _Frosty the Snowman_."

"Nice one, Hunny-senpai!" said Hikaru, giving the tiny third year a thumbs up.

I smiled. Our small moment of normalcy was cut short by the snowball fight ending, and Tamaki looking over at us.

"_What are you doing to my little girl you shady twin_?!" he bellowed.

Hikaru chuckled, and the hand on my shoulder reached up and guided my head to lean on his. He leaned his cheek against the top of his head, fingers stroking my cheek. I sighed. Back to the way he normally was, I guess.

"What do you mean Boss?" he said, and I knew he was grinning wickedly even if I couldn't see it. "I'm just bonding with my _classmate_."

"Mommy!" he wailed, turning to Kyoya, who had just appeared through the front doors. "Don't let him touch my little Haruhi!"

Kyoya looked over at us, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"I have no interest whatsoever in getting involved in this," he said.

"Besides, senpai," I said, standing up and smoothing down my clothes. "You aren't my father."

Faster than I could blink, Tamaki was curled up on a corner of the porch, an aura of gloom radiating out from him. As I watched, a couple of mushrooms popped up around him.

"C'mon, everyone," said Kyoya, looking up at the sky, where the sun was sinking quickly. "It's getting late, you should come inside. We can't have our Host Club members catching colds."

"That wouldn't be good!" agreed Hunny, jumping on top of Mori to begin sifting the snow from his jet black hair.

"C'mon, Boss," groaned Hikaru, rising to his feet and running a hand over his hair. "You need to come in too."

"Yeah, quit sulking," said Kaoru, linking arms with his brother as they went inside.

Reminiscent of the movements of a zombie or robot, Tamaki climbed to his feet and shuffled past me into the manner.

"Well guys, since tomorrow's a school day, I should probably head ba—" I started, but was interrupted as usual by the twins.

"We get the next two weeks off for the holidays, Haruhi," they said together. "Don't you ever pay attention?"

"Next…two weeks?" I echoed, my choice squeaking. A lead weight seemed to drop into my stomach. "Does that mean you guys are gonna make me stay…with you for the rest of the holidays?"

Kyoya set one of his slender hands on my shoulder, smiling his special smile that reminded us all of rainbows and butterflies. Ha, hardly. It made us think of burning buildings and tornadoes and every other terrifying thing in the world.

"I've already spoken with Ranka," he said. "All the arrangements have been made."

"Oh. Great. Thanks," I said with less than no enthusiasm. A weekend with all of these crazies was one thing. But an entire _two weeks_?! Why didn't somebody just kill me right then and there?

"Aw, come on Haruhi!" said Hikaru as he pulled me inside. "We're not _that_ bad, are we?"

"Define _that bad_," I grumbled.

"We're fun," he insisted, sticking out his tongue. "Just admit it."

"Whatever."

Tamaki seemed to have sprung back to life when I started growling at Hikaru, and he threw an arm around my waist, pulling me close.

"We'll take perfect care of our little Haruhi," he vowed. "We'll do whatever it takes to make you happy!"

"Then…" I said, looking at the hand on my hip. "Could you please let go of me? This is sexual harassment senpai."

Instantly his hand vanished.

"Who's up for playing this new game?" he said loudly to cover up his embarrassment.

"I'll pass," I said. "I'm gonna go to my room for a bit."

I headed for the stairs, ignoring Tamaki's pleading voice.

_Peace and quiet,_ I prayed inside my head. _Peace and quiet, just a staircase away_.


	12. All I Want For Christmas is You

I could hear the guys downstairs enjoying themselves. Well, I could hear them getting into the game, whatever it was, but I don't know if they were all enjoying it. Tamaki sounded thoroughly frustrated, and I heard Kyoya complaining loudly about how dull and pointless the game was. However, Hunny and Kaoru seemed to be engrossed in the game. Oddly, I couldn't hear Hikaru stating his opinion one way or the other, though he was generally the louder of the two twins.

With a sigh, I rolled over onto my back and stared up at the ceiling of the room. In all honesty, I wasn't that surprised that I would be stuck there for the remainder of the holidays. The only thing that surprised me was that my dad had agreed to it. Something told me that Kyoya had neglected to mention that we were all staying at Tamaki's house. My father would certainly have objected more strongly if he had known _that_.

I looked over at the clock on the bedside table. It was ten fifty-two. I usually went to bed around nine or nine thirty if I didn't have to study. No wonder I was so tired. Overcome by a yawn, stretched out on the bed, then swung my legs over the side. There was no way I could wear these clothes to bed—the twins would have a cow. Or, as Hikaru would say, litters of flying kittens.

A chuckle escaped my lips and I shook my head. Where he had come up with something like that, I would probably never find out. My amusement faded quickly though, when I realized that when the twins had robbed me of my normal clothes, that included my night dress. What they had left in its stead was a pair of long silk pajama pants, hot pink with black accents, and a black tank top of the same material. I was scared to check the tag, just knowing these had come from some lingerie store. Against my better judgments, I did look. Yep, Victoria's Secret.

Well, it was either those, or sleep in my underclothes, which was so not happening around all these perverts. Reluctantly I shrugged out of the sweater and the cotton slacks, folding them neatly and setting them on top of the dresser in the room. I eyed the pajamas doubtfully, but at least the top wasn't horribly low cut and the bottoms were pants instead of shorts. Besides, the material had sure felt nice in my hands. Finally I gave in and pulled my pants on first. The silk was smooth and supple against my skin, and I had to admit that these pajamas would probably go home with me without any complaint.

A knock sounded on my door.

"Hey, Haruhi, are you in here?"

"Yeah, door's open," I called, pulling the tank top over my head. I could hear the quiet noise as the door brushed the soft carpet.

"Oh—ah—sorry, I—ah—I didn't know you were changing," said a flustered voice.

"It's fine, Hikaru," I said, turning and straightening the top. It was really comfortable, and not as awkward to wear as I had expected.

The redhead stood in the doorway, his cheeks a delicate shade of pink that clashed magnificently with his hair. His expression was uncharacteristically shy.

"Sorry," he said again. "I didn't know you were going to bed. I'll just leave you alone then—"

"Hikaru, it's fine," I interrupted, crossing the room to get a closer look at him. He seemed really anxious. "What's the matter? Something on your mind?"

I already knew that something was bugging him. He'd been acting off all day. Especially out on the porch. It was as though aliens had abducted him and replaced him with a Pod person like they did in old movies.

"Well, uhm—" he stumbled. "Kind of…"

I rolled my eyes at him, reaching out to catch his hand. His blush darkened as I pulled him over to the massive bed, sitting on the edge and tugging him down so he would do the same.

"C'mon, Hikaru," I encouraged him. "You can tell me anything you want."

"Well, I…" he started. "I've wanted to…to say something…for a while now. Christmas seemed like a good time to do it…But now I don't really know what I thought I was going to say."

I stayed silent for a moment, already thoroughly confused as I watched him try to gather his clearly jumbled thoughts. What was he talking about? What was Christmas a good time for? I mean, besides the obvious.

"Damnit," Hikaru groaned, holding his face in his hands. "This isn't going the way I wanted."

"_What _isn't?" I prompted.

He gave a sound very like a growl, then launched to his feet. I still had his hand, and his fingers tightened around mine, pulling me up with him. Wasting no time, he started pulling me toward the balcony doors.

"Hikaru—hold on—wait—!" I spluttered as he towed me over to the doors.

With his free hand, he flung the doors wide open, and we were blasted by the cold air from outside.

"Hikaru, what are you—" Again, he didn't let me finish. But this time he didn't cut me off with his own words, though his lips were involved.

A high-pitched noise squeaked from my throat when Hikaru pressed his lips to mine. For an extremely long, slow second, I had no idea how to respond. What did I think of it? What did I think I should do?

"Quit thinking," he said roughly against my lips. "Just feel, for a change."

Just feel? How did I…

Like I'd been hit by lightning, suddenly I was hyper aware. Of him, of me, of our surroundings. He was warm, despite being out with me in the gently falling snow. His lips were soft but firm against my own, not moving yet, just simply pressed to mine. His hands were almost hot when they released mine in favor of sliding around my waist, pulling me closer. I hadn't realized how tall Hikaru was compared to me before, but he had to lean down to kiss me.

My heart was thundering in my ears and pounding in my throat. My blood felt like it was boiling just beneath my skin, or else like some sort of electrical current was passing straight through it. Of their own accord, my hands crept up to the back of Hikaru's neck, curling in the still-damp crimson locks of hair at the base of his head. In response, one of his hands left my waist to caress the side of my face.

Some part of me acknowledged that this was insane. This was _Hikaru_, one of my best friends that took great delight in both sexually harassing me and in tormenting Tamaki with the fact that we were classmates. And yet, this seemed like a completely different side to Hikaru, one he hadn't often willingly shown me, even if I had observed it before. His gentle side, that suggested that he cared about people outside of the little world he and his brother had created for themselves alone. For whatever reason, he liked to keep that side of himself hidden. Most of the time. But he was demonstrating it to the fullest effect right then.

"There," he whispered hoarsely, breaking away and hiding his face in the crook of my neck. "I think…that worked a little better."

I leaned my forehead on his chest.

"Uhm…Hikaru?" I said hesitantly. "What was that about?"

He chuckled against my skin.

"Well, I hadn't gotten the Christmas present I'd really been looking forward yet," he said. "So I figured I'd get it for myself."

"Huh?" Of course I didn't understand.

Hikaru leaned back from me, a funny little smirk playing around the corners of his lips.

"Well, Haruhi, all I really wanted for Christmas—" he whispered, touching his forehead to mine, our noses nearly touching, "—was you."


	13. Good Tidings?

"…You locked the door when you came in, didn't you?" I asked.

Hikaru grinned his usual mischievous grin.

"But of course. I didn't want the Boss to interrupt, after all."

And Tamaki certainly was trying to. Apparently, when Hikaru retired early from their game of _Scene It: Harry Potter_, there had been doubts about where he was headed. Kaoru had planted the idea that his brother was heading to my room, and Tamaki followed his trail. Now, he was beating at my door, demanding that the "shady twin" let him in.

"Sorry Boss, no shady twins here!" Hikaru hollered, taking my hand and tugging me back into the warm room, shutting the balcony doors behind us.

"Hikaru, get out here right now and away from my little girl!" Tamaki demanded through the door.

"Tamaki-senpai, I'm not your little girl," I sighed.

"Well, Haruhi," said Hikaru quietly, ignoring the wailing boy in the hallway. "I should probably get out there before he has an aneurism."

I laughed.

"Might be a good idea. Quick question, though."

"What?"

"Why'd you replace my nightclothes?"

Hikaru's smile turned into somewhat of a dirty leer.

"A lovely young lady like you _can_ dress the part on occasion," he said. "And that grandma nightgown wasn't doing you any favors. Be happy I didn't let Kaoru slip in lingerie instead. Our mom designs a fair bit of that, too."

My cheeks heated up when I considered the possibility of finding a teddy or a transparent, useless bra with little scraps of material hanging down in place of actual pajamas.

"Yeah. Okay. You have a point," I conceded, by blush growing darker.

He laughed and rumpled my hair.

"Of course I do, Haruhi," he teased.

On the other side of the door, I heard Tamaki sniveling about his little girl, and I could just picture the guy foaming at the mouth in his anxiety.

"You'd better hurry and get out there," I told Hikaru.

"Yeah, probably."

He reached up and cupped my chin in one hand, looking down at me with hazel eyes that were very nearly gold.

"Goodnight, Haruhi," he said softly, leaning down for another kiss. I leaned up to meet him, standing on my toes so I could get almost even with him.

Just as our lips touched, the bedroom door exploded open, and Tamaki staggered through. I leapt back in shock, but Hikaru caught me around the waist to keep me at his side. He gave an evil grin to Tamaki, who looked like he was entering a state of shock. His fingers were trembling at his sides, and his skin lacked any color.

"You…" he said, pointing a shaky finger at the redhead. "You…_You shady twin! What have do done to my Haruhi_?!"

I sighed.

"Tamaki-senpai, can you please take your screaming somewhere else?" I asked.

Before I could blink, Tamaki was right in front of me, his hands gripping my shoulders.

"What did he do to you, Haruhi?" he demanded. "Did he touch you against your will? I'll kill him. I'll—"

"No, senpai, he didn't touch me against my will," I cut across him.

"But—but I saw him kissing y—"

"You saw _us_ kissing _each other_," I corrected. "Now go take your harassment somewhere else. I want to go to bed."

As one might have expected, Tamaki didn't take that very well. He froze as still as a statue, and very, very slowly, he began to dissolve like he had on the day of physical exams.

"Whoa, cool," said Hikaru, watching as Tamaki turned into little particles and blew out the bedroom door. "How does he even do that?"

"Beats me," I shrugged. "Good night, Hikaru."

"Night, Haruhi," he laughed, pressing a quick kiss to my forehead before scampering out of the room.

I shook my head, smiling a little to myself, and climbed wearily into the bed. I'd probably sleep like the dead tonight.

"So, Haruhi, how was your evening?"

I looked up from my poached eggs at Kaoru, who was watching me with a raised eyebrow. I swallowed my mouthful of breakfast to answer him.

"Fine, Kaoru," I said cleanly.

"Better than the Boss's, I daresay?" he continued. My eyes flicked for just an instant in Tamaki's direction. He sat in a corner of the kitchen, mushrooms beginning to sprout from his head while he quietly shredded bits of paper. _Another hamster home, for your nonexistent hamster?_

"Uh, yeah, looks like it," I agreed.

"You look nice, Haru-chan," noted Hunny, either oblivious to Tamaki's sulking or else simply not caring. "I like that sweater."

"Thanks, Hunny-senpai."

Apparently, my holidays with the Host Club were being sponsored the twins' mother, as my clothes had once again been switched out for a designer sweater while I was in the shower. This one was dark purple with green accents, long enough for the twins to consider it a dress, but not for me. They'd obviously guessed as much, because they'd also left soft black pants with it.

I was passed being nervous to wear the clothes the twins left for me for two reasons: one, they were the only things available at this point, and two, they were in truth very comfortable. Besides, I had a feeling that those clothes would end up coming home with me anyway, whether _I_ packed them up or not, so why worry so much?

"Well, guys, I'm finished," I said, setting my napkin down by my plate and standing up. "I'm gonna go read some more."

"I'm finished too," said Hikaru as I headed out of the kitchen. "Hey, Haruhi, wait up!"

I paused out in the hall, and he came out to join me, reaching for my hand.

"So, are we going to keep it a secret from the rest of the Host Club?" he wondered as we walked up to my room.

"The rest of the Host Club as in Hunny-senpai, Mori-senpai, and Kyoya-senpai?" I said skeptically. "Kyoya's not stupid, so he's probably already figured it out. Mori and Hunny are pretty observant, too. If they haven't put it together yet, they will."

"Yeah, you're probably right," Hikaru conceded. "What about our customers?"

"What about them?" I wondered.

"Won't they kind of get in the way?"

"Why would they?" I asked, confused.

"I don't know…Just, you know, to everyone else, you're still a dude…and it might be..well, you know…weird…" he said awkwardly. I just laughed.

"Hikaru, you and your brother sexually harass me all the time anyway, regardless of who's watching. Nobody'll think it's unusual, especially since you're supposed to be part of the gay twincest act and all."

He joined in my amusement.

"That's true," he agreed. "I don't know what I was thinking. No one there will think there's anything weird or different going on."

"_Is_ there anything weird going on?"

We both jumped and looked over our shoulders. Tamaki had followed us out of the kitchen and all the way up the stairs. Hikaru sighed and shook his head.

"Jeez, Boss, you shouldn't creep up on people like that," he reprimanded.

"Answer my question."

"Define _weird_."

"Are you two…you know…"

"Together?" Hikaru and I spoke at the same time. We shared a quick look, and burst out laughing.

"So you are?" Tamaki said, deflating.

"You could say that, yeah," said Hikaru easily.

"You had better take damn good care of our Haruhi then, you shady twin," Tamaki said firmly. "You can't afford to be as selfish as you have been in the past. Not with her."

Hikaru smirked.

"You're giving me your blessing?" he chuckled.

"Did you hear what I just said, Hitachiin?" Tamaki snapped.

"Of course I did, Boss," said the redhead. "And I'm not gonna hurt her."

"You'd better not."

"Uhm, guys?" I said, irked at being spoken about like I wasn't present. "I'm right here. Could you not talk like I wasn't?"

"Sorry, my sweet Haruhi," said Tamaki in his simpering Daddy voice. "Daddy didn't mean to make you feel excluded."

"For the last time, senpai," I said, though I knew it wouldn't really be the last, "You're not my dad."


End file.
